After extensive use of Google search (and this board's search) I have given up looking and thought I would post my problem. At the very least, it's a warning.

Back-story:

My office had seven 8700r Blackberries sitting in various states of disrepair. Some had their screens gone, for one a keyboard button didn't work, some the speaker didn't work, and one worked fine but the case was so damaged that no one wanted to use it. All of them are out of warranty. I managed to save five of the seven by frankensteining parts from the last two. Quite pleased with myself, I told my boss (mistake #1), and this is where my trouble begins.

[I had several long paragraphs about how I ended up with my current problem but decided against posting it. Once it's on the net, it's stuck there.]

Problem:

My boss is no longer using his old phone. The old phone was wiped and redeployed to another user. There is no backup. Someone, I will not say who, deleted my boss's BES account and recreated it. His newly activated blackberry only has messages dating back seven days, which is standard. He wants to access all his messages that are sitting in his mailbox on our Exchange 2003 server.

All the searching I've done indicates this is not possible and that "there's no reason you should want old messages". Well yes, there is a reason to want old messages. Forwarding messages is not an option due to the sheer amount. Frankly, I can't believe there's not an option to push out more than just 7 days worth.

Blackberry Manager v4.0.6.12
Phone v4.2.1.101 (Platform 2.3.0.81)

Does anyone have any ideas?

What I’m going to try after posting this is extracting his Exchange mailbox and then importing it back in using a program called Exmerge. My hope is that BES will think the newly imported messages are new and redirect them to the phone.

Final Thought/Warning:

Do things for yourself. Even if someone has the power to do something it doesn’t mean they have the ability.

Hi lpickard

To summarise:


There is no way to increase the number of messages that BES will pre-populate to a device (well, no supported way, and a hack could kill BES)

There is no way to increase the pre-population even if your boss' account had NOT been deleted from BES. BES sends out the pre-populated volume as per the BES settings. If BES is set at max, it doesn't matter if your user is a first time BB config or actually swapping devices - max OTA pre-population is exactly what it says.

The only way to transfer message history is to backup the old device, restore messages onto the new device, then EA the new device

There is no way to get the BB handheld to "retrieve" messages from the mailfile that aren't on the BB (i.e. a BB can "get more" on a partially downloaded message, but can't go and find messages from 8 months ago)

The other way round it is to forward a lot of messages, but you have ruled this out

Have no idea regarding Exmerge, sorry

Sorry not the answers you wanted, but that's the way it is

That's not going to happen, with or without Exmerge - unless of course your boss' mailfile is approx 64MB in size.

This doesn't help you now, but I beleive BES 4.1.5 when released, will allow you to search for email messages that are not on the device and then download the ones you want to the device.

Right now, it's under 64mb. But it doesn't matter since the Blackberry has no way of finding the old messages.

Exporting then importing the mailbox didn't work either.

My boss has moved past this and has reconciled himself (pun intended) to fowarding old messages but it is now a point of honour.

The capability to search for past emails that reside on the server will be introduced with BES 4.1.5 and device OS 4.5 specifically to address this requirment by many users.

Well it seems like he's accepted the consequences but for next time you can set on the BES to re-push up to 14 days or 700? emails which ever comes first.

I think as an admin you should enforce/remind/educate that a blackberry is just a mechanisium to get email/calendar quickly whilst on the move etc etc and shouldn't soley be used as a be all end all like say a laptop.

Ironfist is right. There is also a registry hack to enable prepopulation when switching devices, not just on brand new accounts. You can also prepopulate subfolders by choosing them for redirection before activating the device.

I am hoping with the new full mailbox search feature in 4.1.5 that I will no longer need to explain to my users that the BlackBerry originated from a pager device, and is not a full replica of the mailbox, it is for on the go access to recent messages.

As it is right now at least I can tell them about the mailbox search feature coming in the next release. It is always difficult to say "nope, not possible, not going to happen" to someone who is difficult to begin with!

Let me just correct myself here. On new versions of Desktop Manager there is also a pretty good feature called "swap handheld" - which copies over all the messages on the device, as well as any non-standard applications.

Used it for the first time the other day when I swapped out my 8100 for another 8100 - worked very well.

Jadey, If I download the desktop manager and I still have the old 8703e and the new curve I should be able to transfer 3rd party apps and emails? Help me out! Please!!!

Yes, you should be able to transfer them. I have only used the app a few times, so can't recall the procedural steps, but have a play with it - it gives you lots of prompts etc.

I can't vouch that an 8703e app will work on a curve, but it should at least transfer across (for example, I had a coloured-trackball app on a pearl. I was able to transfer the app to an 8800, but it didn't work as the 8800s don't have the same LEDs behind the trackball, and the app was registered to the PIN of the Pearl. So in a nutshell, the app did not work at all, but it did transfer across!)

Only with 4.5 OS I think, right?

I think so

Hi Jadey,

Just had an "order of operation" question -

I always thought activating last would wipe the messages clean. No?

Activating does not wipe anything in terms of data (someone PLEASE correct me if I am wrong!)
It will not necessarily be able to merge/synch the data, i.e. mail data, but it ought not wipe it.

I thought pre-pop always worked on new accounts AND switched devices.
Only time I find it does not work is if a user wipes then reactivates on the same BB (same PIN) - then BES sends nowt in pre-pop.

That is correct as far as I know Jadey. However, I have run into issues with doing this. A device with messages on it was activated on the BES again without being wiped. The user was unable to delete the messages that were on the device prior to the activation.

You can either wipe the device from that point and reactivate, or use DM to clear out the messages (easiest way IMO).

Agreed, backup/restore/EA is messy.

I tend to just wipe then EA, and my users live with the limited pre-pop. If they REALLY kick up a fuss I will use the "swap handheld wizard" now that it exists, but prior to that I just told them there was no way round the pre-pop limit.

I agree. Most of my users really don't complain to much about that. If they would, the switch device wizard is a good idea

Seen and read great post here. I compiled and consolidated information in my blog related to this issue. Check out my updated post about BlackBerry Email Prepopulation information and tips.

cheelam.com/blog/2008/06/14/blackberry-device-managing-email-prepopulation-and-user-expectation

Hope this helps.
Chee